


Faire Chlaidh

by ayamari_no_goshi



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Buried Alive, Cemetery, Mentions of Myth & Folklore, Oneshot, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27276850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayamari_no_goshi/pseuds/ayamari_no_goshi
Summary: AU one-shot. Sometimes graveyards are guarded by the recently buried. Too bad, the legends specified you never actually had to be dead to get the job. Rated T because of paranoia. Cross-posted on FF.net
Relationships: None
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57





	Faire Chlaidh

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> This a one-shot is another AU heavily inspired by old legends, particularly that of the Scottish version of a church grim. Information regarding the inspirations can be found the end. 
> 
> Uh, this particular fic might be upsetting to some people. It’s a bit dark, even for me.

“Hey! You don’t want to do this!”

“Shut up, Fentonio,” Dash sneered as he and his buddies marched the town freak, Danny Fenton, up to the old MacKenzie Cemetery. It had been decided they would give him a little bit of a scare. The kid didn’t know his place, and they were going to show it to him.

Sure, they were only a few months into the freshmen year of high school, but the hierarchy had been established. The football players, like Dash, the popular girls, and the other wealthy and beautify ones were the A-listers. Everyone knew that they needed to either respect or steer clear of them. Yet, Fenton didn’t. The kid had stood up for one of the band geeks when another footballer, Kwan, requested the normal payment. Didn’t Fenton know that’s the way it was? That the geeks did the A-listers’ homework for them as payment for not being touched? 

It wasn’t just that incident either. Fenton had rebelled and spoke out against him for years, ever since they were in elementary school together. Strangely enough, he didn’t like standing out. His parents were the talk of the town – the weirdos dressed in those bright suits carrying homemade slime weapons. But, sure enough, whenever someone was being bullied, Danny Fenton got in the way. The issue with Kwan was the last straw. 

So, after some planning, they decided that the cemetery would be the best place for it. No one used it anymore, settling for the new Amity Memorial Park on the other side of town. As a result, many of the graves were now unkempt, and there were rumors of ghosts being sighted. There was no better place to scare the son of ghost hunters! It would be especially perfect with what they had planned. 

They had to wait until Halloween, but once Fenton left the school grounds, they surrounded him. At the threat of physical harm, Dash and the other members of the football team explained that they just wanted to have a chat with him and directed him to the old cemetery. 

“Alright, we’ve passed the gates. What’s so important that you need to talk to me here of all places?” Fenton demanded as he stopped moving. Judging by the way he looked around, he knew they were planning something. To bad it was just one of him versus ten football players.

“We’re not quite there yet. Keep moving,” Dash instructed. 

“No. I don’t like where this is going. Either get over with it or let me leave.”

“Why you little…”

Dash placed in arm out to silence Dale, one of the sophomores who came, thinking the plan sounded like fun. “Look, Fenton, we just want to show you something. It’s just a little further in. You can either come quietly, or I’ll personally drag you there.” He cracked his knuckles for emphasis. When Fenton gulped and nodded, he gave the shrimp a satisfied smirk. He was too easy. 

About ten minutes later, they reached their destination in a secluded part of the cemetery with fewer graves than the rest of it. They stopped when they reached a hole Dash, Kwan, and their frontline man, Justin, dug the other day. A crudely made cardboard tombstone had Fenton’s name scrawled on it. 

“Alright, you’ve made you’re point. I get that it’s Halloween, and this is definitely worrying, but you guys don’t want to ruin your careers by hurting me, right?” Fenton asked. Although he tried to sound brave, a tremor of fear could be heard. His eyes darted back and forth between the hole and the football players. “I’ll stay out of your way from now on. How does that sound?”

“We’re not quite finished yet,” Dash explained as he put an arm around Fenton’s shoulders. “I mean, we did dig this just for you. Try it out for us, and we’ll call it even.” He then pushed the dweeb forward. 

Fenton caught himself right before he fell in, widely swinging arms and all, just like in the cartoons! It was great! But when Fenton turned to protest, his eyes went blank as he crumpled to the ground. A metallic thud rang through the air. Everyone turned to see Dale holding a shovel, grinning like a madman. 

“What the hell? We’re just supposed to scare him, not kill him!” Dash shouted as he gestured helplessly to the boy. 

“I didn’t hit him that hard. Besides, you wanted to scare him. What better way to do that then have him wake up in the hole, partially covered in dirt?”

“I mean, that sounds cool and all, but seriously man!”

“Dash,” Kwan called out to him. He turned to see his friend crouched over Fenton. “He still has a pulse, and his breathing seems steady. I don’t see any blood, but I’m not sure if that hit could have given him a concussion.”

“Damnit. Should we call 911?”

“I say just throw him in the hole and leave him,” Dale stated. “We wanted to scare him. Besides, there’s no way that could have killed him.”

“Dude, do you not know how dangerous concussions are?” Justin demanded. “Don’t you remember how many times we’ve been warned about them in practice? On top of that, he could report you for attempted murder!”

“Correction,” Dale smiled, “he could report us for attempted murder. Meaning, this could ruin all of us. Let’s just bury him and not talk about it again.”

They argued back and forth for several more minutes, but eventually their entire group reluctantly decided to go with Dale’s plan. However, after they put Fenton in the whole, threw some dirt on him, and went on their way, Dash and Kwan decided to anonymously contact the police once they got away from the others. 

As much as Dash didn’t like Fenton, he had no desire for the kid to die. Especially if it was over something stupid like this. He had just wanted to scare the pipsqueak. 

……

The sounds of distant sirens ended up waking him. Groggy and with a pounding headache, he shifted. Realizing he could feel an odd texture under his skin, he sat up, coughing. Dirt fell from his face and chest as he looked around. Oh, those bastards really did try burying him. 

Coughing a bit more, he slowly stood up. Thankfully, the hole wasn’t too deep, but it did take longer to get out than he expected due to the loose soil. Head still pounding from the exertion, he sat and rested for a bit. 

Glancing up, he saw the glow of the moon. Oh, right, it was a full moon. Groaning at the sight, he pulled himself off the ground. It was such a perfect night for stargazing, but of course he managed to get himself hit with something and pushed into a hole. His parents, well, at least his sister was probably worried sick. If he had to guess, Sam and Tucker were probably just as frantic. He had promised he’d be over Sam’s for their yearly horror movie marathon. This year, they were planning on watching all the Dead Teacher movies.

Thankful for the light of the full moon, he looked around to see if he could find his backpack, or at the very least, his phone. He could hear buzzing, probably vibrations from it, but he couldn’t seem to figure out where it was. Sighing, he figured he could try to come back in the morning when he had better light and a clearer head. 

Still sore, he began his trek back towards the entrance. He could still hear distant sirens, and if he wasn’t wrong, he could see the flashes of red and blue. Did someone call the police? He should be grateful, but with his luck, he’d probably somehow get arrested for trespassing. But, at least they’d be able to help him contact his parents. 

“Hey! I’m over here!” he shouted when he saw officers checking the area with flashlights a few minutes later. “Hey!”

They didn’t seem to hear him. Maybe he was too far away? Deciding he’d take the risk of getting a worse headache, he ran to catch up to them. “Hey, officers! Over here! I’m over here!” He was now only a few feet away, but they still didn’t respond. “Okay, okay. You’re probably trying to teach me a lesson, I get it, but I’d really like to go home. Please!”

There were still no responses. Knowing it was stupid and probably dangerous, he decided he’d try touching one of them. “Why won’t you listen…!” Instead of tugging on the officer’s arm, his fingers slipped right through him. Not understanding what happened or if it was just a trick of the light, he tried again with the same results. 

“What… what’s happening? I don’t understand…”

As he stared at his hands, one of the officers must have heard something as he turned towards Danny. However, the man didn’t seem to see him. Instead, he walked right through him as he went to investigate behind a statue. His partner followed him. 

A deep chuckle drew his attention. Turning, Danny found a pale figure in a white suit slowly walking towards him. It seemed to give off its own luminescence, which made its features seem blurred. 

“Who… or what are you?” he stammered as the figure stopped a few feet away from him. 

“Rude one, ain’t ‘cha,” the figure stated it looked him up and down. Its voice was masculine and stern. “Name’s Walker, punk. Former warden of both Amity’s first prison and this graveyard.”

“Warden?” Danny wracked his brain to try to figure out what this thing meant. To his knowledge, there hadn’t been a jail around Amity Park for decades. Besides, how does one become a warden of a graveyard. “I don’t get it.”

“Slow to the uptake I see.” Walker scowled at him. “But it probably couldn’t be helped. Most of the old traditions have been lost, and I’m honor bound to at least fill you in. So punk, have you ever heard of a graveyard vigil?”

“Do you mean like what people paying respects?”

The figure somehow rolled its non-existent eyes. “How about this. Have you heard of the spirit of a dog that guards churches?”

“I… I think so? A friend of mine really likes old legends and things like that. I think she mentioned it before.”

Walker nodded and started moving towards the cemetery gates. Not certain what else to do, Danny hesitantly followed. 

“They called it a ‘Grim’. Thought burying a dog before any people would prevent any one of the newly buried from becoming a guardian of the graveyard. Too bad that didn’t work,” Walker stated.

“I still don’t think I understand what you mean.”

“The most recently buried became the guardian of the cemetery until someone new took their place. I was the last person buried here, until you came along. It’s probably been seventy or more years since my burial, and afterwards, some rat decided the newly departed needed a fancier resting place. My lynching must have tainted the place.”

Walker chuckled again before he turned to Danny. His crooked smile sent shivers down the teen’s spine. “I should be thanking you, boy. As much as I enjoy enforcing the rules, it isn’t any fun if there’s no one around to enact any punishments.”

“Thanking me? What did I do?” A sinking feeling washed over Danny. There was something Walker was dangling something in front of him, but he couldn’t grasp it.

“Didn’t I tell ya?” Walker asked as he stepped outside the cemetery gates. “The next person buried in the cemetery becomes its next guardian.”

“But I didn’t die!” Now scared at the implications, Danny ran to the gate but as soon as he got to the boarder, it felt as if an electric shock ran through him. His screaming stopped as he stumbled away from the gate. “I… I don’t understand.”

The figure wickedly smiled. “Didn’t say you had to be dead to take over the roll, did I? To be honest, wasn’t sure it would actually work, but maybe the date had something to do with it. After all, isn’t Halloween supposed to be the one night of the year when the lines between the living and the dead blur?” Walker laughed again. “Looks like you’re already being called to duty.”

“What are you…? My hands!” Glancing down, Danny noticed his hands begun to fade.

“Don’t worry. You’ll reform in a little. Bet those cops found your grave. Don’t worry. You’ll only have to act if someone tries to rob a grave or damage a tombstone.”

“What about you?”

“Me? Like I said, I’m free of my duty. Thank you for your service.”

As Walker saluted him, the world around Danny seemed to fade away. His next memory was of him coming to near the hole the football players threw him in. The two officers from earlier were examining the area and radioing for assistance. One of them found his backpack, which had been lying near where he had been standing before things went black. Danny tried reaching out for it, but just like before, his hands passed through it.

Not knowing what else to do, Danny called out to the men until his voice gave out. No one heard him. Even when more detectives showed up, no one seemed to see or hear him. 

……

In the days that followed Danny Fenton’s disappearance, a large investigation was launched by the police. From the anonymous source that provided them with the tip and the crude grave they found, almost every officer involved suspected fowl play. The officers had some witnesses report they saw some of the local football players, and they spent hours grilling the members of the team. 

Several of the freshmen players broke and explained to them about the prank gone wrong. Several of them were arrested and tried. They wanted to try them for attempted third degree murder, but without a body and little evidence, none of the charges could stick. Everyone knew it was a travesty, but there was little the courts could do other than send the main offender to a juvenile detention center. 

With there being no body, Danny’s family held out hope that one day he might reappear, but as the months and years passed, their hope waned. They eventually had a proper memorial built in the old cemetery where most people believed he originally died. It replaced the local memorials his friends and some of his classmates made for him over the years. 

As more years passed, curious locals and amateur sleuths continued to visit the grave and wonder what happened to the boy. However, every once in a while, particularly around dawn and dusk, people would sometimes see the hazy image of a boy who looked a lot like the missing Danny Fenton. 

At times, it seemed like the figure tried to communicate, but no one ever heard anything in those instances. However, there were reports from local vandals that the same ghost would appear and threaten them if they did anything other than damage the weeds. It soon became a local dare to try to do something to cause the ghost of Danny Fenton to appear and chase them off. 

As decades passed, the stories of the ghost changed. His appearance went from the image of the Fenton boy to that of a black and white specter. As the local teenagers became more emboldened, tales of a hulking and demonic creature of fiery hair became more and more common. Unlike the previous ghosts, the new one seemed more dangerous. Instead of just warning or scaring, this one openly seemed to want to harm the trespassers. 

Psychics who visited stated the entity was trapped. Hoping to ease the trapped spirit, they tried every releasing ritual they could think of, but none of them worked. It just seemed to make it angrier. 

Eventually, someone decided to record an EVP session just to see if they could get a proper communication. The only thing they were able to record was the following:

“When I disappeared, you decided to disturb and disrespect this place. The only way to free me is to take my place.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just like with my other AU, Verboten, this one was heavily inspired by old legends. In this case, the Scottish version of the Church Grim. In the more familiar English version of the myth, the first person buried in a cemetery became the cemetery’s guardian spirit, so it became tradition to bury a dog first so that the dog would become the protective spirit instead. Although the ghostly dog was only a danger to those who would disturb graves, it was still seen as a sign of an upcoming death. Mind you, this should not be confused with the ghostly black dogs seen in the moors of the British Isles – they are different and more malevolent entities. 
> 
> However, the Scottish version was a little different. They believed that the duty fell to the last person buried in the cemetery. So, every time someone new was buried, the previous grim or faire chlaidh (the gaelic term for this type of spirit) would be relieved of its duty, and a new one would take its place. One day, my mind decided to wonder what would happen if a cemetery with a Scottish grim was abandoned… and this happened. I should also mention, while implied you need to have been previously deceased to become one, I can’t find any confirmation that it doesn’t apply to anyone buried alive. 
> 
> Notes: MacKenzie is a nod to the Mackenzie poltergeist of Greyfriars Kirkyard. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the Kirkyard a few years back. Didn’t experience anything strange, but old cemeteries are creepy in general. 
> 
> Also, concussions can be very dangerous. If one is suspected, it is highly recommended to get checked out in case any swelling or bleeding occurs as it can cause serious damage, possibly even death. 
> 
> EVPs – electronic voice phenomenon. Although their validity are highly debated, they are said to be voices or sounds picked up on recordings that have no known origins.


End file.
